Carmi Brandis

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Over the last 20 year, more than two billion people have been affected by flooding disasters, according to an article from the United Kingdom's Channel 4 News. Those affected by floods comprise not only people living in urban areas, but also farmers whose livelihood depend on understanding weather patterns, which are becoming more unpredictable. Rain gauges, ranging from simple water-collecting devices to more complex optical detectors, play an important role in managing and preventing flooding disasters when precipitation levels rise.

Hospitals and healthcare providers operate under constant shortages of blood for transfusions. According to America’s Blood Centers, one in seven people who enter a hospital require a blood transfusion, and less than 10% of those eligible to donate blood do so annually. Red blood cells have a maximum shelf life of 42 days, blood platelets last only five days, and donated units must be kept refrigerated under specific conditions at all times to avoid premature expiration.

Well-loved urban parks historically have served as community centers. With more than 100,000 public park facilities scattered throughout neighborhoods and cities in the United States, urban parks have the potential benefit of fostering community and providing kids and adults with a place to socialize, exercise, play, and connect with the outdoors. As one City Lab article reports, urban parks are, “an ideal place for Americans to meet the national recommendations for physical activity (an hour a day for youth and a 150 minutes a week for adults),” though, in more recent years, parks are struggling to fulfill this potential.

Surrounding one’s self with several hundred species of wild animal from all corners of the world would normally present a serious and frightening safety risk for even the most intrepid thrill seeker. Yet we rarely think about safety when we step through the gates of our city’s local zoo. Behind the scenes, however, zookeepers work tirelessly to ensure a welcoming and danger-free experience while also looking after their own safety, as well as the well-being of the amazing creatures in their care. However, this does not mean that the experience always is without incident. National Geographic reports that from 1990 to 2016, 42 animals have died as the result of an escape or attack attempt. By contrast, 15 human lives were lost to zoo incidents in that same timeframe, along with 110 being injured.

When it comes to effective IoT implementation, businesses face a series of unique challenges. IoT-enabled machines, sensors, and devices require regular software updates as technology evolves, and new device onboarding, device maintenance, and repair cycles must be executed quickly to avoid downtime and the interruption of IoT data collection. A company’s IoT platform requires a variety of tools to execute these critical device maintenance tasks — such as connectivity and application support, service enablement, and solution architecture — but perhaps the most important service that a competent platform can provide is IoT device management.

With any enterprise comes an abundance of critical assets: vehicles, production materials, products, machines, tools, appliances, and people—all of which need to be managed properly to avoid costly delays and malfunctions, meet compliance standards, and achieve financial goals. It comes as no surprise that the Global Asset Management market is growing. According to a market outlook published by Stratistics MRC, the Global Enterprise Asset Management is expected to reach $6.83 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 11.1%. It also comes as no surprise that IoT and cloud services are a driving force behind enterprise asset management (EAM) market growth.

As outlined in our 2016 blog, GPS: The Grandfather of IoT, GPS is a radio navigation satellite service (RNSS). Unlike IoT applications, GPS doesn’t require the user to transmit data and operates independently of any telephonic or internet reception, providing a powerful tool for companies around the world to locate and track assets wherever they are.

Almost 20 years ago, the introduction of computer-driven automation brought fundamental change to the manufacturing industry. Today, with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), manufacturing is changing again. The traditional factory floor already accustomed to interconnected production means along a predefined hierarchy, with every asset working together to achieve efficient production at optimal costs. With SIM-enabled IoT, new “smart factories” are envisioning a hyper-connectivity that maintains constant data flows along every link of the value and supply chain to close information and inventory gaps, increase operational efficiency, and lower overall manufacturing costs. This new level of connectivity, backed by IoT and SIM technology, has led some to declare SIM IoT manufacturing as the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0.

As the world works toward a greener future, new tools are needed to study the impact humans have on the environment. For most urban areas, the annual carbon footprint of a single city can range from “40 to 80 metric tons of carbon dioxide” according to Business Insider. Fortunately, environmental sensor technologies have greatly improved in recent years, and we now are able to study our carbon footprint and impact in ways we could only dream of a decade ago. Leveraging the Internet of Things to connect sensors across a city or geographic region to a single network could mean even more information for scientists, meteorologists, and ecologists everywhere.

Businesses across dozens of industries are turning IoT-collected data into practical action to improve operational efficiency and provide better service. From retail supply chain management to smart home solar energy to healthcare patient monitoring to tracking fleet locations and service conditions, the number of applications for data collected by IoT will continue to grow as wireless technology advances.